Revolutionary Electric Motor is a Single Nanometer Wide

Scientists at Tufts University have developed an amazing electric motor, that is essentially a tiny molecule only one nanometer wide. Here’s a brief explanation:

This incredibly small machine… was created by simply stacking a butyl methyl sulphide molecule onto a substrate of copper. The conformation of the molecule ends up sticking the sulphur “downwards”, where it acts as a sort of pivot, with the carbon atoms sticking out on either end.”

Now, while this may seem amazing, if you’ve ever studied microbiology, you might not be impressed. The human body is home to thousands of “molecular machines”, which are incredibly complex in their design and function. However, the difference is that this motor was developed in a lab, by human hands. Hopefully, this is the first step towards our society having a better understanding of microbiology.